December 20, 2012

Is it "unbelievable" and "shameful" that the press corps wanted to talk about the fiscal cliff? Or has the Newtown massacre been a diversion from the fiscal cliff?

I use the word "diversion" here with circumspection. The word connotes amusement and entertainment, and the murder of children is terrible and serious. Nevertheless, our fixation on something is not immunize from criticism on the ground the thing we are focused on is terrible and serious. Our fascination with it may be morbid and prurient.

This is the 4th definition of the word "diversion" in the OED: "The turning away of the thoughts, attention, etc., from fatiguing or sad occupations, with implication of pleasurable excitement; distraction, recreation, amusement, entertainment."

What is the fatiguing/sad occupation and what is functioning as a diversion? The media and the American public were energized by the massacre and spurred into to producing/consuming copious media. Politicians, including and especially the President, seized the opportunity to demagogue massacre.

So I would honor the professionalism of the press corps in dragging our attention back to the fatiguing and sad occupation of attending to the federal budget.

The press corps knew the sound of a can being kicked down the road when they heard it. A blue-ribbon commission headed by the guy who was supposed to make sure there was no waste and fraud in the stimulus spending?

Our local reporter, who was sent down to report on Newtown came back with some own soul searching on being a journalist. Instead of interviewing residents and people who knew the victims, who had a dozen reporters all looking for a story, he turned the reporting on himself and other journalists. Pictures and all, and how the media just swarms likes bees into a town.

The shooting spree by an odd schizophrenic can turn into a total victory lap for the Actor-in-chief Obama. He can show us his love for people and incite disarmament of his foes that prefer reality to his fantasy du jour.

While the Fiscal Cliff is Obama's long planned crash of the USA into a serious Depression accompanied by a mega inflation designed to eliminate the dollar valued assets of Americans and demand a world UN currency.

That is all about to ripen into a mega victory for the world Marxist/Enviros. So please STFU and don't spoil this moment!

Goodness, if this past week has done anything, it should just give us some perspective. I mean, if there's one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what's important...

These ungrateful republicans... people are dying of starvation in Africa and kids are dying in school massacres right here at home... and they are still unwilling to eat what I'm feeding them.

Lets see if this works... in terms of what somebody as opposed to someone else saying them.

"Goodness, if this past week (9/11/2001) has done anything, it should just give us some perspective. I mean, if there's one thing we should have after this week (9/11/2001), it should be a sense of perspective about what's important..." George W Bush.

Headline - Bush Scorns the American people.

I believe people are not listening to Obama when he speaks... they watch him... and that's it.

The same media who felt it was vital to coordinate to ask Romney questions is upset when somebody asks Obama questions.

As for who will starve seniors --- if things aren't reformed now, you. If you hadn't been fighting reforms for decades, the pain inflicted would've been markedly lower than it will be. The longer we wait, the worse it will be.

Actually, this is one instance where I think Obama would have been entitled to re-direct the questioning, and not answer any fiscal cliff questions.

What did I get from the news conference?If you're earning $990,000 dollars a year Obama thinks you can afford to pay more taxes. And that's what taxes are all about.... Paying what you can afford.I suppose I wouldn't be so disgusted if there were even the slightest chance that increased taxes could even slow the rate of growth if the deficit. It won'tObamas idea of fair taxation is holding taxpayers up by their ankles, and shaking them. If any money falls out of their pockets then obviously they had more than they needed.It's just so very difficult believe that we've fallen to this level of envy and hatred of success in our nation.

Those who are pathetic posers with a pathalogical need for publicity, but not one scrap of logic or intelligence in their pea sized brains, report on it.

"Ann, I'm here in [place] standing in front of [location] where you can already see the [things] are [description of condition] from the [event or characteristics of event]. Authorities say it is not yet clear how many [things] will be [statement of condition], but some say the full impact of this [event] could be with us for many [time period]s, and even well into the next [larger time period]s and beyond.

Now that I think of it, I just realized that any reporters living in high tax locations -- like New York City -- are going to be hit hard in their wallets if we go over the fiscal cliff. No wonder they wanted to ask about it.

garage mahal said... Enough about dead kids. How are we going to starve seniors?

You are one despicable piece of shit garage. It's bad enough that Obama attempts to use the tragedy in Connecticut to push through his continuing spending madness combined with job killing soak the rich tax increases, but at least he is somewhat subtle about it.

Did having hundreds of thousands of people seeing you get shown to be a stuttering idiot on instapundit push you over the edge?

Seriously, I wish nothing but the worst upon you. May karma pay back your vile typings with interest.

But since we as a society, as lead by the MSM, seem to believe morality can be achieved by legislation...

Lets begin with laws to eliminate violence from movies and TV. Let's begin to reduce our 'national obsession with guns' by a law to prohibit showing firearms in movies or television. Laws should follow to prohibit depiction of edged weapons, then physical violence of any sort.

We should eliminate violence in schools, beginning with re-naming of any teams such as the 'Fighting Irish' or those with a warrior connotation such as Trojans. No school should be allowed to have a carnivorous beast, such as bear, lion, tiger, etc., as mascot.

Only with laws such as these can we hope to eliminate violence from our society. And Hope is what it's all about.

You discuss the reaction ("energized") and actions ("spurred" and "producing/consuming") of the American public and the actions ("seized" and "demagogue") of politicans. Are you implying that these groups of people found pleasurable excitement from the massacre? "Pleasureable excitement" is a state that few members of those groups would think they had found from the massacre and thus it is pretentious for you to ascribe it to them.

In any case, your opening paragraph was not about those two groups of people. The headline, the quutation and your first two sentences imply that the press corps were diverted by the Newtown massacre. However you do not ever explain how they received pleasurable excitement. Do you consider them to be part of the American public who "produced" media? If so, how is that a notable "pleasurable excitement" when that is there regular occupation?

We have to be able to multitask. Besides, it's not as if men, women, and children are not murdered ever day, throughout the day, by the thousands. What makes this incident special is the place and numerical concentration of lives lost.

We cannot run trillion dollar account deficits and continue to devalue both capital and labor without consequences. The so-called "fiscal cliff" (without an operating budget) has and will affect every American, and everyone around the world who uses or denominates their debt in dollars, especially natural resources and specifically energy (e.g. oil).

We may still have an opportunity to save the surviving children. Well, at least the ones who walk and talk anyway.

Joe Biden, for once, said it correctly: this is a big deal!

Also, we cannot discuss further restrictions of Constitutionally recognized rights until we address the million aliens who illegally enter this nation annually, the federal government supply of guns to cartels and terrorists, and measures to address criminals who ignore the laws.

re: Second Amendment

In the worst case, we can purchase (or recovery) the guns sold by the federal government to arm cartels south of the border.

Perhaps we should consider restricting the federal government's access to guns. They have repeatedly demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to keep and bear Arms. They have a record of murdering innocent people and losing control of guns in their possession to psychopaths, sociopaths, and both common and organized criminals.

This just shows the pack mentality of the MSM and their eagerness to pursue any liberal political issue that comes along, so that is why so many are salivating at the Newtown School massacre and cannot switch back to the fiscal cliff just yet.

(this is sarc / snark since most people watching the MSM probably don't know we have not had one for awhile.. since telling them might make dems look bad or take a lot of energy to blame on republicans somehow)...

Via the DiploMad Obama. OK, to my chagrin, he's President, and modern Presidents see themselves as consolers, grief counselors, and dispensers of teary hokum. But this one, really? This one talking about gun violence? This is the President who to make political points against the NRA and those who defend the second amendment had his administration ship thousands of weapons to some of the most violent and best organized criminals on the planet, the Mexican drug cartels. He sought to blame the violence in Mexico on Americans' right to keep and bear arms. The result? At least two dead US agents and hundreds of dead Mexicans, including teenagers and children. Yes, children. Children with parents who grieve as much as the parents in Newtown do. The grieving American parents, however, know that the man responsible for their children's murders is dead; the grieving Mexican parents, on the other hand, know that the man responsible for their children's murders got re-elected to a second term as President of the United States--in large part thanks to the votes of Mexicans in the US. It seems that the lives of Mexicans only count when they emigrate to the US and vote Democrat.

Want to get Zero back on the fiscal cliff? Just be manly and ask him about fast and furious and the several hundred dead Mexicans plus agent Terry. Throw in a question of how an ATF agent's personal hand gun was found next to the body of a Mexican beauty queen and it will fiscal cliff and starving the old folks until the cows come home.

Events vary, like there can be birthdays, weddings, corporate events, concerts, and shows. As there are different kinds of events, venues should also be selected by keeping in mind the type of eventcorporate event venues

There are two reasons that they want to talk about guns and not about the Fiscal Cliff.

First, the Administration has done essentially nothing about the Fiscal Cliff except to reject everything that the Republicans in the House propose. They have not dealt in good faith, making offers, and then when the Republicans appear ready to accept them, move the goal posts.

They get what they want if nothing is done. Evil defense gets cut, but not really their own programs that much. All the new entitlements (some 5% or so of GDP) are ignored. And, the evil millionaires and billionaires (and the rest of us) are going to pay a lot more in taxes. What is there not to like. Oh, and the MSM has made sure that the Republicans are the ones looking bad, despite the President not negotiating in good faith, and Harry Reid not dealing at all.

The other side is that, as one Obama advisor pointed out, it is advantageous not to let a crisis go to waste. Gun grabbing legislation isn't going to pass once everyone calms down and puts the recent school shootings behind them. They are trying to ban the most popular long gun in the country (almost half the rifles sold last year were AR types), and ban something that can be constructed in garages (higher capacity magazines). Besides, the incidence of this sort of weapon being misused is extremely low, in relation to the number owned by the American people - almost all of them are lawfully used. And, they can't ban semiautomatic handguns, because they constitute most of the handgun market any more, and esp. of non-Saturday Night Special type handguns, and because of Heller, etc.

The gun grabbers are desperate right now for something, some legislation, and know that in a couple of months, their window of opportunity will have closed.